Hello, faithful readers! We're back with chapter 4!

DISCLAIMER TIME:

Unfortunately,we are not the owners

of Maximum Ride.

James Patterson is.

Lucky. *goes and cries in corner*

[A/N: For this bit: Max POV, Fang POV, Both]

I couldn't believe it. It seemed so obvi ous now.

Of course! I should have known!

That's Maximum Ride!

That's Fang!

"I remember you!"

MAX POV

It struck me like lightning. That's Fang . The one and only! I could not believe my eyes. Seven years since I had last se en him, and there he was. Right behind m e!

"Yo, Max, come on! We gotta leave this p lace and get back to Haven!" yelled Gazz y.

I snapped back to reality. "Right. Run t o the end, there's only a concrete divid er between us and the sky. Just jump ove r it and go!" I yelled. Cars screeched t o a halt as we ran past them, not bother ing to look out for them. I saw a cell p hone camera flash, and heard people yell ing. Poor humans, they didn't know what just happened.

I focused on making the swift jump over the divider. The rest of my flock was al ready in the sky. Fang was behind me. I jumped over and beat my wings to gain al titude. I whooped in victory.

"Max! We did it!" shouted Angel. She smi led like the adorable little kid she was .

Cheers erupted from the flock. I turned around. Fang was smiling. In all the yea rs that I had known him, he didn't smile often. Didn't talk much. I did most of the talking for him. Now that I think ab out it, I acted like Nudge back then! I snickered at the thought of me acting li ke Nudge.

"We've got a lot of catching up to do," I said.

NUDGE POV

I looked up at Max and the new kid, Fang . Apparently they knew each other from b ack at The School. Max was talking about the Haven and what they did there. Fang just nodded, he must be the 'tall, dark and silent' type. I admit, he was prett y good-looking!

"Ohmygosh, Angel! Can you believe it? We took out a bunch of werewolves! That wa s epic!" I rambled to Angel. Everybody s ays I talk too much, but I think that th ey just don't appreciate it when I share my feelings. I call it 'expressing my e motions through words'. It's a life skil l! I read it in a book!

Angel nodded, sharing my excitement. "Th at was really cool! And now there's a ne w bird kid like us!"

"Look at those two," I commented. "Max n ever talks that much! She looks so happy ! I think that they would be a cute coup le. Don't you think so? They're like two birds of a feather! Pun intended!"

Angel giggled. "You're right, Nudge! The y're so adorable together!" she agreed.

"Eew, gross!" said Gazzy.

"Aw, come on, Gazzy!" I said. "You're no fun!"

"I am, too!"

"Are not!"

"Am too!"

"Are not!"

"SHUT UP!" yelled Iggy. "Jeez, what are you, three years old?"

We sighed. "Sorry, Iggy!"

I whispered so that only Gazzy could hea r me. Or so I thought. "Are not!" I whis pered.

"NUDGE!" yelled Iggy. Shoot.

"I'm sorry!" I said. Sometimes Iggy's no fun, either.

Max interrupted our argument. "Guys, I w ould like you to properly meet Fang. He was my best friend back at The School," she said. She flinched at the words, 'Th e School'. I knew that it brought back p ainful memories for her.

Everybody gave a chorus of 'hi's and 'ni ce to meet you's.

"Hey," said Fang. Wow, he really doesn't talk much. This would take a little get ting used to. He looked at Max, like he was expecting her to say something.

She explained about what happened at The School. "We shared a cage when we were little. I called him Fang, because he us ed to bite the whitecoats when they woul d try to get him for an, ah, 'experiment '. When we were ten, we were moved to se parate cages because we were getting too big for just one. I escaped three years ago, and so did he. It was bad luck tha t we didn't meet each other. But it's go od luck that we're here now. I don't rea lly want to talk about stuff from The Sc hool. Capiche?" she told us.

"Capiche!" we all yelled back.

The rest of the flight went on with us j ust chatting and occasionally doing litt le tricks. I did a somersault in the air and then snapped out my wings again. Ga zzy dive-bombed Iggy and then pulled up at the last second. Poor Iggy didn't see him coming, because, well, he's blind! I could tell that Max had a bit of a cru sh on Fang. Ha! I knew they would be cut e together!

Meanwhile, Fang was being Mr. Emotionles s Brick Wall. I suppose years of living on the run, plus The School, would make you like that. Although Max wasn't like that at all, she did hide some emotions that would have otherwise been obvious. It's easy to tell when she's happy, but not when she's sad. And you better watch out when she's angry or you're in deep trouble. She will kick your butt all the way to next Tuesday! Yikes.

"Look!" shouted Dylan. He had exceptiona l vision, better than the rest of us.

"What?" we shouted.

"Oh yeah, right," he apologized. "The Ha ven's really close now. We should start losing altitude now," he said.

We did so, and sure enough, The Haven em erged from the expansive forest. Gotta k eep the place a secret, you know! So why not in the middle of a forest?

We slowed down and soon, we landed in th e big field at school. We were home! The mission was a success!

FANG POV

We landed in a huge field near a big bri ck building. "What's that?" I said.

"That's the school, where we have our le ssons," Max explained. I cringed at the word 'school'. Oh well, gotta get used t o it.

When we entered, I saw lots of lockers a nd doors to what I assumed were classroo ms. I saw a TV show once that had a scho ol in it. This looked similar to the one in the show. I was in awe at the size o f this place! It certainly wasn't the si ze of the mall, but lots of people could fit in here, still. I couldn't imagine how many people would need to be in here ! How many people were there in this 'Ha ven' place? I was a little skeptical.

"Yo, Fang. Earth to Fang?" said Max, wav ing a hand in my face.

"Sorry," I mumbled. Okay, I'm not the mo st talkative person ever. Not by a longs hot!

"We've gotta go check in with Haagen-Daz s and get you set up here. You know, wit h a house and stuff," she said. House? H aagen-Dazs? I was a bit overwhelmed, but I nodded like I understood her perfectl y.

"Great!" she said. "Let's go!" She yanke d me forward and ran into a big area mar ked 'reception'. "Yo, Chuey! Look who we found in Minne-snow-ta!" she said to a guy at a desk. His sign said 'Mr. Chu, A ssistant Principal'. I guess this is Max 's way of respecting authority. Typical of her, I thought. She hadn't changed a bit!

She burst through a door marked 'Dr. Gun ther-Haagen, Principal'. This must be Ha agen-Dazs.

"Hallo, Maximum. You're bahck qvickly," he said calmly. Dr. G-H was kind of old looking, but not ancient. He was balding , though, and a bit overweight. Maybe he ate too much Haagen-Dazs, I thought.

Max replied, gushing out information. "Y eah, we took down a bunch of Erasers and flew out of the parking ramp! The mall was freaking huge! You shoulda seen it, Haagen-Dazs! And guess what the best par t is? I know Fang! He's my friend from b ack at The School!" she practically shou ted.

"Please, Maximum, call me by my real nam e. You hahve no respect for authority, a lthough I doubt that you vill change you r vays anytime in the foreseeable future . So dis is, ah, Fang, you said?" I nodd ed. "Great. Since you already know Ms. R ide, I vill put you in all of her classe s. School starts at 7:30 AM. You vill li ve with Dr. Jeb Batchelder and an avian boy, Iggy. I assume you met him?" Once a gain, I nodded. "Vonderful. You vill rec eive more details tomorrow, however I vi ll give you a short summary of vat ve do here.

This is a place known only as The Haven. It vas created as a safe haven for chil dren who have been experimented on, such as yourself. It vas founded when it was brought to the attention of the governm ent dat there vas unlawful experimentati on on humans. Phase vone of this operati on vas to gather and train a task force of mutants. Phase two, vhich has been re cently implemented, is to rescue and tra in as many children and teenagers as pos sible, until they become legal adults. T hen they are no longer vards of the gove rnment and vill do as they vish. Lastly, Phase three will be implemented vhen ve have enough trained mutants. Ve vill vo rk to destroy unlawful institutes foreve r, in hopes that ve can put an end to th is crime," he explained. Wow, this dude had a very heavy accent. Creepy.

I nodded, and said, "Thank you, Dr. Gunt her-Haagen,".

"You are very welcome, Fang. Now, go mov e in to your house and get a good night' s rest. You have class tomorrow," he ins tructed.

"Yes, sir," I said. I left the room and Max followed me. I overheard Dr. G-H mak e a remark to another teacher.

"I daresay that this young man vill be a good influence on Ms. Ride," he said.

I snickered. No way in the world was Max going to be 'influenced' by me! Besides , that was my classic 'respecting author ity' façade. Come on, you didn't really think I was all 'pleases' and 'thank you s'. I like to have fun.

Nudge walked up to me. "ZOMG, Fang, you are going to love it here! You get to li ve with Iggy! He's nice. I think that it will be fun to have a new friend! Somet imes you get tired of the same people. N o offense, guys. But now there's a new f riend to get to know!" Sheesh, she sure talks a lot!

We walked out as the sun started to set over the forest. We reached the street w here all of us (except that guy named Dy lan) lived.

"Bye guys! See you tomorrow!" shouted An gel as she and Gazzy ran off to their ho use.

"Bye Fang! I can't wait to see you tomor row! Since you're older than me, you won 't be in my classes. But you can sit wit h us at lunch! That wou- mmph!" Max clap ped her hand over Nudge's motormouth.

"Come on, Fang! This is our house!" shou ted Iggy. He was already at the front do or of the next house, which is apparentl y where I will be living. I kept walking until I reached the driveway. I turned back at Max and waved goodbye.

"See ya, Fang!" she called back at me.

A house to live in? A 'family' to live w ith? Neighbors? School? Food (I hope)?

This would take some getting used to.

Max:So, Fang is back at The Haven! What will happen when he faces a new challeng e: School? Read on to find out!

But while you wait...

Angel: Review! Please! *Bambi eyes*

Fang: Aw, how did you know that I can't refuse the Bambi eyes?

Angel: I didn't, but I do now! *evil lau gh*

Fang: Crap. WHY ME? WHYYYY?

Angel: *Bambi eyes* Fang, get me some ch ocolate!

Fang: Yes, ma'am. *sigh*

Max: Well, that was fun! Sorry that this chapter was mostly filler. But it did g ive you some info that I won't have to e xplain later. Next chapter will have som e drama! I promise! Girl scout honor!

Angel: You're not a Girl Scout...

Max: Well, I promise anyways!

That's enough rambling. Bye, faithful re aders!

~MaximumAngel1